Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning the classification of the materials on A.Perepilichny by the UK government

Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning the classification of the materials on A.Perepilichny by the UK government

Question: How would you comment on yet another decision of the British side to classify additional information on Mr A.Perepilichny within the inquest into his death?

Answer: This procedural decision concerns classification of information on Mr A.Perepilichny’s connections to the British secret services, to wit, whether he has been their agent or made contact with them. It has been made public just before the next hearing of the inquest into the death of Mr A.Perepilichnny, which is scheduled for 21 September in the Old Bailey.

Another classification of materials on Mr A.Perepilichny upon the request of the UK Home Office under the pretext of “national security” de facto indicates an obstruction to an impartial process and concealment of essential information, which could be entered into evidence to become part of public proceedings with the participation of all interested parties, in order to establish the truth. What equal opportunities for all sides and adversarial legal argument are we talking about, when the parties have no access to a complete set of information related to the case? The classification of materials creates the right conditions for adjustment of the coroner’s inquest to be directed so as to fit the unfriendly foreign policy towards Russia. A good example of how political interests set the vector of an investigation is clearly observed in the poisoning case of Sergey and Yulia Skripal.

As for Mr A.Perepilichy’s connection to the British secret services, it stands to reason that the classification of supporting materials suggests that the businessman really must have cooperated with them. If so, we are dealing with a prime example of the familiar modus operandi of the British secret services in dealing with their Russian-speaking agents in the UK. The outcome of such cooperation on multiple occasions is either death, or attempted murder of our compatriots, followed by the classification of information and attempts to shuffle off the responsibility to Russia. It is the engagement of the British secret services that looks like the most plausible explanation for the numerous enigmatic incidents involving Russian nationals in the UK.